This week we continued to learn about the fundamental building blocks of our faith toward God. Recently we learned how repentance was a necessity in first turning to Him. Then in faith, we have to come to a place of accepting forgiveness for all we’ve done and also be willing to forgive others. Forgiveness is one way that God expresses His love towards us. Therefore one way we should express our love for others is to do the same.
Jesus said that if we love Him, we will keep His commands. We must really meditate, grasp, and understand the importance of His statement. This helped us learn that obedience was another stepping stone towards completing our faith. For any human being to follow and obey the directive of a God who can’t be physically seen takes faith. We must come to believe His existence is a reality and His wisdom is above anything we’ve ever known. This would assist us in being able to take His advice as something legit enough to apply. Obeying God is not just becoming subject to an authority figure, but becoming subject to a better outcome in life because we believe He knows best.
We also came to understand that when we begin to place our faith in God His desire is to reposition our lives on a new path. This path begins with His son Jesus Christ being the entryway. However it has been made clear through scriptures that on this path which leads to true life the trail to be followed is not always comfortable, but at times very challenging. In actuality, our decision to walk down a scarcely traveled road can be very costly. We know the road is difficult and narrow so there will be a lot of difficult decisions that need to be made and not everybody will fit in the lane we’ve chosen to walk down. This is what presents the high possibility to cause undesired separation between those we are close to.
Being that we have turned from a path that wasn’t hard to stay on, and have now turned towards one that is difficult to stick to. Faith in God is the necessary component to endure the challenges that will be faced on this new road. Therefore an ever-growing obedient response to our guide and escort is a high priority if we want to get to the promised destination. We must trust God enough to cooperate with His know-how over our own. If we say we believe in Christ and we believe that His way is better than our own, our cooperation with Him should be seen in our willingness to obey Him which is to follow Him and allow Him to take the lead.
Overall, if obedience is a stepping stone in building our faith it is imperative that we understand coming to Christ, hearing His voice, mentally and verbally accepting what He says, and even spiritually receiving revelation from Him is not enough. We have to actually respond and act on what has been made known to us. Otherwise, we’ll walk down the wrong road believing we’re on the right track and the foundation being laid will be faulty. Therefore obedience is key to not allowing deception to be a part of the foundation we intend to build on.
**Audio for this recap can be listened to here
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Q4TM4oe4AxihmHbbGVS5N
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/obedience/id1740279389?i=1000660845648
Scriptures for this week
Matthew 7:13-14
Mark 8:34-38
Matthew 10:34-39
Mark 3:31-35
Matthew 7:21
Luke 6:46-49
James 1:21-22
Romans 8:1
Titus 1:16
Hebrews 3:12-19
Hebrews 4:1-3
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
